Israel Internet Association

The Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL) is a nonprofit registered Israeli association focused on promoting internet deployment, ensuring reliable and secure connectivity, and advancing the social and economic dimensions of the internet for the Israeli public.[1] Its stated mission is to ensure that Israel's internet is reliable, secure, independent, fair, and competitive.[4]

The organization describes itself as one of Israel's leading nongovernmental organizations dealing with internet policy and user rights.[4] It operates without a commercial or political agenda and is governed by an elected management committee that serves voluntarily, while a professional staff runs its core infrastructure and policy operations.[1][4] The National Library of Israel catalogs the association as an institution under its Hebrew name, איגוד האינטרנט הישראלי, and holds its annual activity reviews, which have been published from Petah Tikva since 2018 as an online resource.[5][6]

ISOC-IL has managed Israel's national internet infrastructure since 1994, when it took responsibility for the .il country-code top-level domain registry.[1] It operates as a noncommercial, nonprofit technological body managing major internet infrastructure for the Israeli public.[1]

The association is the Israeli chapter of the Internet Society and participates in international internet-governance forums including ICANN, CENTR, the Internet Governance Forum, and WSIS.[1] Its stated objectives include allocating domain names, promoting self-regulation and net neutrality, expanding safe and accessible internet use, advancing internet research and education, supporting digital literacy, protecting users' rights, and representing Israel's internet community internationally.[1]

At a 2021 INSS policy conference, attorney Yoram HaCohen appeared as chief executive officer and Professor Keren Nahon as president in a session concerning Israel and major technology companies.[7] An earlier CEO, Dina Beer, held the position at least through 2014.[8] The association publishes annual activity reviews and periodic research reports.[1] Its data and statistics program analyzes internet-use patterns in Israel by frequency and age group.[9]

ISOC-IL's most fundamental role is managing Israel's national domain-name infrastructure. The .il registry links domain names with internet addresses and domain-name holders, and the association distributes DNS information throughout the global Domain Name System.[1] By the end of 2015, the registry contained 233,404 domain names, including 8,712 names registered before 1999.[1] A later announcement placed the count at approximately 250,000 co.il, gov.il, org.il, and ac.il domain names.[10] The registry infrastructure was classified by Israel as national critical infrastructure in 2018.[3]

ISOC-IL's responsibilities as registry operator include publishing .il domain information, certifying domain-name registrars, maintaining registry infrastructure, and defining registration and domain life-cycle policies.[3] Toward the end of 2015, the association decided to stop acting as a direct registrar while continuing to oversee registrars that had operated on its behalf since 2007; at that time, ten registrars were authorized — eight Israeli corporations and two foreign corporations — and Bezeq International joined as an authorized registrar in January 2016.[1]

The association has also implemented DNSSEC across Israeli domain spaces including co.il, ac.il, org.il, net.il, muni.il, and k12.il.[11] The system digitally signs DNS information to make it harder for attackers to hijack domains, impersonate websites, redirect users to fraudulent sites, and steal passwords or personal information. DNSSEC was offered to the public free of charge, though website owners were required to implement the digital-signature process through authorized registrars.[11]

Since 1996, ISOC-IL has operated the Israeli Internet Exchange (IIX), which functions as the central meeting point for internet service providers in Israel.[1] By connecting most Israeli ISPs through a neutral communications system, the IIX allows traffic between Israeli users and Israeli services to remain inside Israel, reducing international communications costs, improving speed and cyber resilience, and supporting market competition.[1] The IIX has operated under an exclusive license from Israel's Ministry of Communications since 2000.[3]

During the 2015–2016 reporting period, peak traffic through the IIX approached 30 gigabits per second, and the association was considering an upgrade to 40- or 100-gigabit connections.[1] In late 2015, ISOC-IL and Verisign installed Israel's first gTLD server within the IIX framework for resolving .com and .net names, and the association also installed an additional J-root server alongside an F-root server it had operated for eleven years.[1] Locating these servers near the IIX improved browsing performance and strengthened the network's resilience against distributed-denial-of-service attacks.[1]

One of ISOC-IL's most significant recent projects was establishing a fully Hebrew top-level domain. ICANN approved the Hebrew country-code top-level domain .ישראל following an application submitted by ISOC-IL with support from Israel's Ministry of Communications and several civil-society and professional bodies; the Academy of the Hebrew Language confirmed the application complied with Hebrew-language rules.[10] The association stated that the Hebrew extension allows users to type complete website and service addresses in Hebrew script, from right to left.[10]

ICANN formally approved the domain in 2020, and on November 22, 2022, ISOC-IL began offering the public the option to register Hebrew domain names under .ישראל.[12] The rollout began with a preregistration period for companies and other entities, followed by public registration; existing .il addresses continued functioning, with an option for conversion to the new Hebrew domain.[12]

CEO Yoram HaCohen described the creation of a Hebrew top-level domain as a long and challenging process. He noted that the idea had existed for more than a decade and that the association had conducted a public survey in 2012 to help shape the project, which he characterized as having national and historic significance.[13]

Beyond infrastructure, ISOC-IL conducts digital-literacy education and public assistance programs for a broad range of Israeli communities.[1] The association has operated a Safe Internet Center since 2013 to address online bullying and provide assistance to victims.[1] According to its 2015–2016 report, the center offered human assistance twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and received approximately 4,000 requests for help in 2015, with the same period recording a 30 percent increase in inquiries and approximately 22,000 unique visits to the center's website.[1]

ISOC-IL's Internet Safety Hotline, which the association has operated since 2013, provides the public with personal assistance concerning online harm, threats, and offensive content on the internet and social-media platforms.[1] The hotline holds special-reporter, or trusted-flagger, status with major online platforms.[2]

The association's digital-literacy programs have reached diverse populations. Since 2011, training for Arabic speakers reached approximately 8,000 people through about 500 courses.[1] Additional programs serve older adults, children at risk, Ethiopian immigrants, the Haredi sector, and small and medium-sized businesses.[1] Its policy and research work includes internet safety, civilian cyber protection, online disinformation, digital literacy, and the digital divide, including research concerning Arab society in Israel.[2][14]

ISOC-IL plays an active role in Israel's broader cyber-resilience framework. During cyberattack events, the association established a situation room that operates regularly, supplemented by special situation rooms staffed by volunteer Israeli cybersecurity experts during major attack events; information collected through these situation rooms was made available to anyone who requested it.[15] This arrangement forms part of a broader information-sharing model involving service providers, security companies, the private and government sectors, and essential-infrastructure bodies.[15]

The association's situation-room activity was prominently engaged during the #OpIsrael campaigns, a series of attacks against Israeli websites launched first on April 7, 2013, and repeated annually.[15] The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism identified ISOC-IL as a nonprofit contributing to internet stability in Israel and noted that the association had itself previously been targeted by attacks associated with Anonymous.[15]

During a 2014 cyberattack threat, then-CEO Dina Beer stated that the association administered Israel's DNS and internet addresses, could filter unwanted traffic before it reached Israeli servers, and coordinated with Israeli internet-service providers during cyber incidents.[8]

ISOC-IL has engaged in significant legal and regulatory advocacy to shape the framework governing the Israeli internet. In a dispute over police-ordered blocking of foreign gambling websites, the association sued the Israel Police; in 2012, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that the police lacked authority under existing law to issue the blocking order and held that ISOC-IL could represent Israeli internet users.[16] The court's decision treated access to online information as connected to freedom of expression, even when the information concerned activities considered harmful or illegal.[16]

The Israel Police appealed, and on March 24, 2013, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld the lower court. Justice Uzi Vogelman rejected the claim that district police commanders could order internet service providers to block access to gambling websites under section 229(A)(1) of the Penal Law, 5737–1977, holding that the law did not expressly authorize orders requiring private third parties — namely internet service providers — to assist in implementing police authority.[17] Justice Vogelman wrote that "the State – as [the party which] has formulated norms of behavior and which is in charge of their enforcement… is directly responsible for the restraint and inhibitions required in implementing [that authority]."[17]

In 2019, the association submitted formal comments on the proposed Cyber Protection Law and the National Cyber System memorandum, criticizing it as "conspicuously lacking in transparency mechanisms, as well as parliamentary and public oversight of its activities."[18] The submission argued that the proposal contained no reporting requirement to the Knesset or the public, while secrecy obligations imposed on Israel National Cyber Directorate employees and members of its supervisory committee would restrict the publication of information.[18] The association further argued that the proposed disclosure and identification system required examination under constitutional proportionality tests — including rational connection, least harmful means, and proportionality in the narrow sense — and that the memorandum failed to address how the cyber directorate would interact with the Authority for the Protection of Privacy, the Israel Securities Authority, the Antitrust Authority, and other law-enforcement agencies involved in cyber-related investigations.[18]

In the area of platform accountability, the association has published research and advocacy concerning social-media regulation, disinformation, and cooperation between platforms and public authorities.[2] It also sent Meta findings concerning enforcement of community standards for Hebrew-language content and users. The association reported finding hundreds of Hebrew-language accounts that allegedly violated authenticity rules but remained active after users reported them.[2] On May 29, 2025, ISOC-IL and the Institute for National Security Studies jointly held a study day on the role of civil society, academia, and the press in addressing disinformation in Israel, with approximately 60 researchers, civil-society activists, and journalists participating.[19]

The association collects and publishes detailed data about internet use in Israel, including updated data tools on social-media and online-service use and on internet users by country.[2] Its data and statistics program presents analyses of usage patterns by frequency and age group, with one publication based on findings from the first quarter of 2023.[9] The association also publishes reports on activity and inquiries received by its online-safety hotline; a report covering 2022 was among those made publicly available.[2]

Research conducted by ISOC-IL has included demographic breakdowns of platform use across Israeli communities. The association's research found notable variation in daily TikTok use across population groups, with usage among Israel's Arab society recorded at 32 percent, compared with 9 percent among ultra-Orthodox Jews and 16–22 percent among secular, traditional, and religious Jews.[2] The association publishes an annual activity review in Hebrew, cataloged by the National Library of Israel under the title דוח שנתי: סקירת פעילות איגוד האינטרנט הישראלי.[6]